Must-do Pastry: Paillard

In the midst of Quebec City's old town at 1097, rue Saint-Jean (street) is a jewel of a pastry shop: imagine fresh Viennese-style pastry, great breads, sandwiches, italian gelato and rich coffee, and you've got Paillard. Never mind you're in the old town of Quebec City itself, which is a great city to visit and be in just to take in the centuries old streets and architecture (the city was officially founded in 1608, and is a Unesco World Heritage Site) - just take in the sights and smell of this european-inspired location!

Paillard stands out as an old-fashioned pastry shop in this great city. Whenever in the area, we usually stop by for lunch - and we've never considered the array of sandwiches! On our last trip, we enjoyed a Jesuite (an almond paste filled flaky, buttery pastry), a Chocolatine (aka, "Pain au chocolat" or chocolate bread, which is a chocolate-filled airy croissant pastry) and a small sweet bread which had the consistency of a brioche, without being overly sweet. My wife enjoyed a great Café au Lait, and I went traditional with the café. Both drinks were rich without being bitter, sign of well roasted beans. The whole experience was affordable, costing us less than $13 CDN (at the time of writing, $1 US == $1 CDN). Ok, not cheap if you're expecting to pay $5 at the local doughnut shop, but considering the quality of the ingredients, this is an excellent deal! All Paillard products are made in-house, and taste rightfully so. Difficult to decide on which pastry to choose (my heart kept saying "Mille-Feuilles! Mille-Feuilles!" but I knew I just had to try something different!), and this is painful, considering Paillard is not really that close to home... With all these attributes, Paillard made it to our list of Must-Do in Quebec City, and we highly recommend you make the detour to the Old City's location!